Steve Ray’s Open Letter to Filipino Catholics

OPEN LETTER

            Often we hear of negative comments about Filipinos.  Now here
is something positive about Filipinos… Here’s something very positive
written by a foreigner named Steve Ray, about Filipinos. Steve Ray authored
many best-selling books, among which are, Crossing The Tiber (his
conversion story), Upon This Rock(on the papacy),and just recently John’s
Gospel (a comprehensive bible study guide and commentary). Steve is also
currently filming a 10-video series entitled, Footprints of God. The first
two videos are out: Peter, Keeper of the Keys, and Mary, Mother of God (now
available here in the Philippines).

            STEVE RAY’S OPEN LETTER TO THE FILIPINO CATHOLICS:

          We stepped into the church and it was old and a bit dark. Mass
had just begun and we sat toward the front. We didn’t know what to expect
here in Istanbul, Turkey. I guess we expected it to be a somber Mass but
quiet and somber it was not- I thought I heard angels joyously singing
behind me.  The voices were rich, melodic and beautiful. What I discovered
as I spun around to look did not surprise me because I had seen and heard
the same thing in other churches around the world. It was not a choir of
angels with feathered wings and halos but a group of delightful Filipino
Catholics with smiles of delight and joy on their faces as they worshiped
God and sang His praises. I had seen this many times before in Rome, in
Israel, in the United States and other countries. Filipinos have special
traits and they are beautifully expressed as I gazed at the happy throng
giving thanks to God. What are the special traits which characterize these
happy people? I will share a few that I have noticed personal observations
as I have traveled around the world, including visits to the Philippines.

            FIRST, there is a sense of community, of family. These Filipino
Christians did not sit apart from each other in different isles. They sat
together, closely. They didn’t just sing quietly, mumbling, or simply
mouthing the words. No, they raised their voices in harmony together as
though they enjoyed the sense of unity and communion among them. They are
family even if they are not related.

            SECOND, they have an inner peace and joy which is rare in the
world today. When most of the world’s citizens are worried and fretful, I
have found Filipinos to have joy and peace,a deep sense of God’s love that
overshadows them. They have problems too, and many in the Philippines have
less material goods than others in the world, yet there is still a sense of
happy trust in God and love of neighbor.

            THIRD, there is a love for God and for his Son Jesus that is
almost synonymous with the word Filipino. There is also something that
Filipinos are famous for around the world – their love for the Blessed
Mother.  Among the many Filipinos I have met, the affectionate title for
Mary I always hear from their lips is “Mama Mary.” For these gentle folks
Mary is not just a theological idea,a historical person, or a statue in a
church – Mary is the mother of their Lord and their mother as well, their
“mama.”

            The Philippines is a Catholic nation – the only such nation in
Asia and this wonderful country exports missionaries around the world. They
are not hired to be missionaries, not official workers of the church. No,
they are workers and educators, doctors, nurses and housekeepers that go to
other lands and travel to the far reaches of the earth, and everywhere they
go they take the joyous gospel of Jesus with them. They make a somber Mass
joyful when they burst into song. They convict the pagan of sin as they
always keep the love of

Jesus and the Eucharist central in their lives.

            My hope and prayer, while I am here in the Philippines sharing
my conversion story from Baptist Protestant to Roman Catholic, is that the
Filipino people will continue to keep these precious qualities. I pray that
they will continue loving their families, loving the Catholic Church,
reading the Bible, loving Jesus, His Mother and the Eucharist. As many
other religions and sects try to persuade them to leave the Church, may God
give the wisdom to defend the Catholic faith. As the world tempts them to
sin and seek only money and fame and power, may God grant them the serenity
to always remember that obedience to Christ and love for God is far more
important than all the riches the world can offer.  May the wonderful Filipino people
continue to be a light of the Gospel to the whole world!

Roy C Gaane

Book of Philippine energy plants

A photo catalogue of about 50 Philippine energy plants will be published in November, 2007 by the Asia Pacific Biofuels Corporation (ABC) in line with its Philippine biofuel development plan. The coffee table book shall contain full description and information on the history, cultivation, habitat, related species, agronomy considerations, location of these energy plants, Rosvid Sunico, ABC Chairman, further announced. 

ABC is a Philippine company dedicated to the scientific development and commercialization of Philippine energy plants attributes.  The book forms part of ABC’s knowledge infrastructure. The book is intended to: 

1. Promote awareness on the presence of such Philippine energy plants and their commercial applications;
2. Promote the role of such plants in the biofuel development plan of the
   Philippines and in the process encourage regional development;
3. Initiate the development of sustainable energy technologies using such plants;
4. Promote joint ventures in the development of such indigenous sources of energy.

“ABC research reflects the strong position of the
Philippines as a source of oil rich indigenous plants”, Sunico said.  “There are species of trees and shrubs that have been found to have strong commercial value in the biofuels field and would serve as strong argument for their long-term development.”  The indigenous energy plants can become the platform of the emerging biofuels industry in the
Philippines. 

The book therefore serves as a reliable reference for agronomists, environmentalists, technology suppliers, funders, educators, and even policy planners, among others, on the social, economic, technical agricultural and commercial options of such plants. For more information, please call Ms. Zeny Brandares at telephone 637.6170, telefax 637.6317 or email interest at:  zobrandares@yahoo.com

Riding a jeep

I’d like to warn everybody of those na nangsaslash ng bags sa jeep. Last night po while i was on my way home, meron po ako nakasabay sa jeep na na-slashan po ng bag and nakita ko po mismo ung pag-slash. I was super guilty po na i wasnt able to inform the victim about it. Natutulog po kasi siya and he happens to sit sa tapat ko. Nung una po napansin ko ung culprit na super restless siya and palipat-lipat po siya ng upo. He even sat beside me and napansin ko po na he was about to do the same sa bag ko kaya i moved my bag away from him. Nakita ko po mismo ung kamay niya na tnatakpan nung malaking backpack na dala niya. Halata po na walang laman ung dala niyang backpack and meron po cyang hawak na dalawang tag 1piso coins sa kamay. Between those coins na hawak niya, meron po blade. Nung napansin po niya na nakita ko ung ginagawa niya, lumipat po sya ng upo and tumabi po siya dun sa nakaupo sa harap ko na natutulog. He did the same thing: nilagay niya ung backpack sa lap niya, ung other
hand nakahawak sa may hawakan ng jeep and ung other hand nasa ilalim ng backpack and ngstart na siyang hiwain ung bag nung victim. sa akin po siya tumitingin while he was doing that kasi alam niya na alam ko ung ginagawa niya. nahulog po ung cellphone nung victim sa floor ng jeep kaya nagising po siya and after that nagmadaling bumaba po ung culprit. I told the victim na i-check ung bag niya kasi i saw what happened. Nakuha po nung culprit ung isang coin purse niya na meron laman na mga coins and his keys sa boarding house niya. Ung culprit po ay nakapolo, and slacks and you can never tell sa porma niya na nangsaslash po cya ng bag, Sir Boogie, meron po ba tayo magagawa about incidents like this? I mean pwede po ba ireport ung mga ganitong pangyayari sa police? and meron po kayang magagawa ang police? I can identify the culprit if makikita ko po cya uli and i can describe him.This is a lesson that i’d like to share with everyone in the group. Konting ingat lang po if ever magcocommute po tayo. You’ll never know na bad guy na pala ung katabi niyo. Ingatan po natin mga gamit natin and iwasan po matulog sa jeep.

Azul System

Azul Systems’ relationship with Sun Microsystems has hit a rocky
patch, with a patent dispute causing bad blood between the two
companies. Ironic, given that Azul’s founder, Stephen DeWitt,
also founded Cobalt and then sold it to Sun, ending up as an
employee of the Java creator.

The British Standards Institute has released guidelines on web
site accessibility, in a hope of improving the 81% of sites that
aren’t usable by the disabled. Red Hat has said it will now
support the Xen virtualisation engine in the next version of
Enterprise Linux. Oracle has finally released its own database
IDE, after years of PL/SQL developers relying on third-party
products.

Jonathan Bennett

Editor, Uk.builder.com

Letter of Dr. De Castro, MD

Dear Pastor Gulfan and Pastor Roque,

After what seems to be a big deal issue on my termination as made by Dr. Bibly Macaya which according to him and to the Ethics, AdCom and Boards were based on the written charges which up to now i have not received, their lawyer Atty Paguio simply states that those documents were ”de minimis” importance. And the bottom line that they want to happen is simply to terminate me and evict me from MAMC. Dr. Macaya, why make all those rounds of discussions as if to appear that you are doing something only to tell me that effective February 10, 2007 i am now not only terminated but also evicted effective February 10, 2007. You see Pastor Roque, what kind of justice system do we have? what kind of christianity are we practicing. That although there were no basis for our actions, since we are in authority we would abuse it and use it for our own benefit and favor. Is this the leadership that you are endorsing? Is this the kind of person we would want to run our healthcare institution who only listens to his mastermind, the non-SDA VPMA Dr. Archie La Madrid.

Now that i am already evicted as i have predicted and told you in my previous emails, the smiles on the face of Macaya and la Madrid could not be contained. How about you Pastor Roque and Pastor Gulfan—now that i am evicted, arent you happy too? At least at your level you have eliminated your source of stress and headache. Dr. Macaya will march again in the hallway of Pasay English Church, being an elder and Sabbath School Teacher greeting each one a Happy Sabbath—and the rest of the week goes on to oppress his people. I wonder what Dr. Bibly Macaya will be teaching in his class knowing that the topic for the quarterly lesson is about oppression. He might better just introduce himself saying, “Good morning brothers and sisters, look at me, the typical oppressor of all time.” You see Dr. Macaya was given so much power and authority simply to oppress and persecute his people. I dont know Pastor Roque what you think about that. Probably as you all talk about it–you would say “Good for Dr. de Castro to be evicted, since he is the headache of my administration.”

I am attaching to you right now, the present schedule of all consultants based at MAMC and if you will notice at the Physical medicine and Rehabilitation Section, only the name of Dr. Vicente Gan (a catholic) appears as consultant. My name is no longer there. Macaya and La Madrid has instructed their secretary to remove it since i am already evicted effective February 10, 2007. And just like what they have done in the past, everytime a patient looks for me, as they did with some others in the past, they will now inform the information counter secretary that i am no longer there. After terminating me effective November 30, 2006 with unjust and unfair trial. Now they have evicted me again unfairly and unjustly without any reason or violation. I have yet to receive the official letter of the Boards thru either its chairman, Don Weideman or its secretary, Dr. Bibly Macaya as to the real decision of the Board. I have only received the threatening letter of Atty Paguio, their legal counsel that i am now evicted effective February 10, 2007, who has no authority to write such letter being a non-member of the Board but simply a legal counsel. But as i have said before that in fairness with Atty Paguio, he is just performing his job as he is being paid by the MAMC money (God’s money).

So, is there authority in the letter of Atty Paguio? is that enforceable? If you look at the heading of the letter of Atty Paguio with its law office and associates and is not familiar with the overwhelming services that his office offers, you will really be threatened. But if you are familiar with the style of Bibly, you would love seeing that because Bibly expects you to tremble and pay allegiance to him as if to say your piece of apology to bring you back to the fold of the hospital. I am sorry Bibly but i dont “lick asses” just like some of those following after you and your powerful cohort the non-SDA VPMA Dr. Archie La Madrid. I would rather pay the higher price of honesty, respect, integrity and godly character if only to preserve my livelihood in this hospital. You might have forgotten how this MAMC started. Try to check the names of the people in the patient’s door. These people were the ones who voluntarily donated to bring about the good service of a christian hospital in the past but whose legacy was marred by your overwhelming manipulation, malice, illegality, injustice and unfairness. These people offer their donation for them to be extended to the sick people of this part of the world. But now is transformed to be the haven of oppression and injustices that is culminated by terminating and evicting well-meaning adventist doctors and instead retain the non-SDA practices of the La Madrids.Is this not practice obvious to you? Do you understand what you have done? Do you understand oppression?

I continue to pray that God will give wisdom and discernment to our leaders and i also pray that God will add faith and strength to us that though we are surrounded by overwhelming power and oppressive authority we would be able to take courage to stand for the right–and stand for God tho the heavens fall.

I will continue to serve this institution in the coming days in the same office i am occupying now for my patients to see me and for me to be an instrument of healing until this administration has exercise justice and fairness to everyone not only to me but for those others in the past as well who were also terminated and evicted. I would like to inform all of you that I am the only Adventist in this country with specialty in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation so that it is imperative for me to stay to help our church members seek healing as i make my self available to them. May God bless us all as we continue to minister to others inspite of the fact that Dr. Bibly Macaya and Dr. Archie la madrid is masterminding my termination and eviction. God bless all of you dear leaders.

Jeimylo C. de Castro,MD

Trouble at Manila Adventist Medical Center

Dear Pastor Gulfan and the entire Seventh Day Adventist community,

Greetings!

It would take forever to discuss the endless issues at MAMC if our adventist leaders expect things to settle naturally. There is no such thing as natural healing here unless all these issues at mamc are properly resolved. It pains my heart as i see these things happen. I could only pray that in God’s own time things will be resolved. Our leaders consolation at MAMC is nothing but to look for answers with their lawyers. Even Don Weidemann could not move without his good lawyer Atty Paguio. In that Board meeting last January 17,2007, the Boards recommendation is to confer with me through Don Weidemann only. That is why one of the Board members who told me (if you want his identity i  will tell you at the proper time) said that we did not imply that Don seek legal services, but he was surprised why Don gets a lawyer with him. It only shows that Don is more secured with his lawyer than with ministers with him. What a sad state, my dear leaders to see that our trusted delegated authorities are abusing and misusing their rights.

Let me raise another issue here. And more after this!

Today, will start the implementation of group practice of anesthesia dept headed by the non-SDA head, Dr. Vivian La madrid, the wife of the powerful non-SDA VPMA Dr. Archie La Madrid. And to your info, there was no memo given to medical staff to that effect. Why? They are afraid to face questions to be raised by the medical staff members if they convene anytime as a whole. Please review my email yesterday about the scheme.

Also, in the following days, i will furnish you copies of the list of all dept heads in MAMC who are not adventists knowing that at present we have enough qualified adventist doctors to head such departments. In the past we excuse them saying that we have no available adventist doctors to head such dept but not now as we have enough of them already.

Why do we need adventist doctors as dept heads? Because basically we can address properly our health mission considering that this is a missionary hospital with a different mission as compared to secular big hospitals whose primary aim is to commercialized treatments of patients, at least that is the basic direction of those hospitals, although surprisingly these secular hospitals are even directed to patients needs more than ours when we used to be the best in health services in the past. Also, why adventist doctors as head? So that we can express our faith more with our colleagues and strengthen our influence as adventist to our patients and colleagues as well and eventually to our community. The typical effect of having this hospital be led by non-SDAs is what you are seeing now with the leadership of Dr. Bibly Macaya.

IN the coming days, i will also show you how a modified fee for service patients are shifted to private by this non-SDA VPMA Dr. Archie La Madrid in a scanned documents. And many more.

I am then urging all adventist leaders to act on those non-SDAs occupying such a high position in this hospital so that our health message may soon be properly shared to all our patients and colleagues. I would like to assure all of you that for as long as injustice and immorality prevails in this healthcare institution, i will not stop sending you all these emails. Interestingly however more and more people are volunteering so much information that sometimes i could not just email it to you right away. With regards to the question of Dr. Bibly Macaya where i get those info–i would like to tell him that those same conscientious people whom he places in the hospital are the same people that are giving me these information. Why cant he know them? Because they are afraid Dr. Macaya and his non-SDA VPMA close friend and ally will terminate them as he did to me, unjustly, unfairly and without due process. And i will not stop talking anout this injustices until such time that everything is in place at MAMC and all those wronged have been restituted and restored to their proper and original position. In the name and spirit of justice and fairness, we continue to cry on top of our voice and in silence we pray that God will give wisdom to our leaders to be able to see what have they been doing to us to oppress and persecute us just like what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes. I hope Dr. Macaya understands the quarterly lesson as he teaches his class in Pasay English Church surprisingly beside where i am sitting in church too. I hope Dr. Macaya being an elder of of the Pasay English Church will realize what he is doing. what injustice and oppression and persecution he has been doing. Let us continue to pray for them and let me just assure you that although he has not asked for it, i already forgave him. God bless all of you, pastor Gulfan!

Sincerely,

Jeimylo C. de Castro, MD

“Padala”

This information is very alarming.  A FIL-AM citizen who was flying back to the Philippines for vacationwas apprehended by an Airport Immigration agent while she was checking in her baggage and going through the X-ray machine.

For some reasons, she was randomly check and was told to open all the envelopes inside her carry-on coach bag. They found 10 envelopes addressed to different people in the Philippines.When all the envelopes were opened, a total of $11,000 cash was discovered.  They asked the traveler if she knew the contents of the envelop. She said no, because all the envelops are just “padala” and the senders didn’t tell her whether or not there is money inside.
Immigration agents showed her a policy and guidance stating that it is illegal to import and export over $10,000 in any Asian countries to avoid the possibility of supporting terrorism.

She was fined $500, red label her name by Immigration (means everytime she enter and exit the airport, she will be search 100%) and she also missed her scheduled flight to the Philippines for being held almost 5 hours.

Its hard to believe that departing passengers from the U.S. are also subject to the policy but looks like it is being enforce now. The lessons learned is before you accept any “padala”, make sure the envelopes are open and you physically sight the contents of it or just plainly say sorry but I can’t accept any padala for your own safety.

Expired Anesthesia medicine

This is the first of the series of documents stating the expired anesthesia medicines which is part of the deal done by the Manila Adventist Medical Center (MAMC) leaders as reported and documented by Dr. Azaula, an anesthesiologist herself.

Dr. Bibly Macaya and Dr. La Madrid were so furious knowing this was reported. The remaining bottle of expired anesth medicines is still intact. If you want to know more of this, let me know so you can see.

When MAMC leaders suspected it was hidden in the previous office of Dr. Gensolin at MAMC, they break open part of the door but unfortunately that bottle was not hidden there. This is part of the document we submitted to Pastor Gulfan’s office but up to this time, no investigation was done yet, but instead the MAMC Board of Trustees terminated us, namely Dr. Gensolin, Pozon and me.

How sad this state of MAMC!!! Please pray for MAMC leaders in your private prayers. More documents will follow and I am sure more oppression and persecution will follow against us while we pursue to show you these issues not acted upon by our SSD leaders.

Also, please pray for Pastor Roque as he will be the next leader who will eventually oversee MAMC one AHSA will be given up. In the Southern Philippines AHSA-controlled hospitals quitted from AHSA and is now under the Union Conference. Thats a breakthrough for us. Thanks God for that move.

Incident Report

December 16, 2003. On or about 11:00 AM Dr. Joseph Gulfan had a case I & D face right at GU room. I was the anesthesiologist. Upon induction, I administered Tramadol 100 mg IV, Fresofol 100 mg IV, Esmeron 30 mg IV and I opened the vaporizer Sevoflurane to 8% patient still moves his legs. I ordered to give Fresofol 50 mg IV and then intubated the patient. Operation started, I noticed the patients heart rate was increasing the Sevoflurane vaporizer was at 6%. I increased it to 8% but still the patient was tachycardic as if awake, so I opted to give fentanyl 50 mg IV and another 50 mg IV and Esrnolol 5 mg IV, The heart rate was maintained 118-125 beats/min. The operation lasted for one hour, I tried to ponder and questioned myself why the. Patient was having tachycardia despite the fact that Sevoflurane as the inhalational anesthetic and at 6%- -8%, patient must have been in deep anesthesia.

Today, December 18, 2003 I have a patient and preparing her for possible general anesthesia. Sevoflurane vaporizer was refilled by the operating room circulating nurse. I noticed the label on the expiry date was November 2003, hence expired.

Prepared by Lorna Azaula-Felicen MD